They filed a joint antitrust lawsuit<\/a> the following month against NASCAR and its CEO and chairman, Jim France, and the trial for the case began this week in downtown Charlotte.<\/p>\nO\u2019Donnell refuted that NASCAR made a take-it-or-leave-it offer. Defense attorney Chris Yates entered into evidence an email dated Aug. 30, 2024, from NASCAR to Jordan, Hamlin and Polk with NASCAR\u2019s last offer to end the two-plus years of negotiations and stated they wanted a response by Sept. 6, 2024, as negotiations would not continue afterwards.<\/p>\n
On Sept. 6, NASCAR made a revised offer to all 15 charter teams with an hour deadline to sign. That deadline was later extended by six hours.<\/p>\n
Throughout the week, the teams\u2019 lawyers have attempted to illustrate the steps NASCAR took during charter negotiations to secure its hold on the highest level of stock-car racing in the United States, including entering into exclusivity agreements with any track that hosted a race for one of NASCAR\u2019s three national divisions (Cup, Xfinity or Trucks).<\/p>\n
Of particular focus has been the concern NASCAR\u2019s executives had for a stock car series, the Superstar Racing Experience (SRX), that began in 2021 and was co-owned by three-time Cup champion Tony Stewart. Evidence has been presented showing NASCAR seeking to take steps to limit SRX\u2019s growth, as the series, in NASCAR\u2019s estimation, began to look more and more like the product NASCAR produced.<\/p>\n
On Friday, O\u2019Donnell said at first NASCAR had no issue with SRX when Stewart and his group explained the concept to NASCAR, initially believing it was a good thing for motorsports as a whole. However, O\u2019Donnell acknowledged his viewpoint changed after seeing Chase Elliott, NASCAR\u2019s most popular driver as voted by fans, compete in an SRX race with a car that looked similar to the one Elliott races in NASCAR events.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes,\u201d O\u2019Donnell said when asked if he was concerned during cross-examination by Jeffrey Kessler, attorney for 23XI and Front Row.<\/p>\n
Heather Gibbs talks about pleading letter to France![\"Ty](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-1610764698-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Driver Ty Gibbs with mother Heather, now a co-owner of Joe Gibbs Racing, in 2023. (Sean Gardner \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
After O\u2019Donnell\u2019s testimony wrapped, Joe Gibbs Racing co-owner Heather Gibbs took the witness stand. Gibbs told the jury that Joe Gibbs, her father-in-law, pleaded with Jim France not to impose a strict charter agreement offer on Sept. 6, 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t do this to us!\u201d Gibbs begged France.<\/p>\n
But France was resolute with NASCAR\u2019s deadline.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I wake up and I have 20 charters, I have 20,\u201d France replied, according to Heather Gibbs\u2019 testimony. \u201cIf I have 30, I have 30.\u201d<\/p>\n
As it turned out, France had 30 charters agreements signed \u2014 with JGR\u2019s four among them. But Gibbs testified it was done with a \u201cgun to the head.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you don\u2019t sign it, everything is gone,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
That includes the legacies of her late husband, Coy, and brother-in-law, J.D. who died in 2019 from a neurological disease. Coy Gibbs died at 49 on Nov. 6, 2022, the\u00a0 same night their son Ty won the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship. Heather Gibbs spoke of his death that night, saying \u201cCoy didn\u2019t wake up.\u201d<\/p>\n
That forced Heather to leave her life as a real estate agent and mother of four children to take a leadership role at JGR, where she has been involved in charter negotiations.<\/p>\n
She wrote a letter to the France family pleading for permanent charters, but it fell on deaf ears with Jim France. Earlier, O\u2019Donnell testified France had verbally angry reactions to reading Gibbs\u2019 letter.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s absolutely vital\u201d for the teams to have permanent charters, Gibbs said. \u201cWe need the security to know what we built can\u2019t be taken away.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jordan is scheduled to testify Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHARLOTTE, N.C. \u2014 NASCAR president Steve O\u2019Donnell concluded his testimony Friday in the ongoing federal lawsuit that has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,12716,634,82,575],"class_list":["post-327567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-motorsports","tag-nascar","tag-sports","tag-sports-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}